US Congress calls for action on Honduras in response to murders of land and environmental activists

In two strongly worded letters to the new Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson, almost 80 United States legislators today expressed their grave
concern at the risks facing activists who defend their land and the environment
in Honduras.

A recent Global
Witness report exposed how more than 120 land rights defenders have been
killed since 2010. These were ordinary people who took a stand against abusive dams,
mines, logging or large-scale agriculture on their land. They were murdered by
state forces, security guards or hired assassins. Countless others have been
threatened, attacked or imprisoned.

The US is implicated. In 2016 it provided US$98.3 million in
bilateral assistance to Honduras, on top of millions more through multilateral
agreements. A large chunk of these aid dollars are funding the police or
military, which are behind many of the attacks. Yet Tillerson met with the
Honduran President in Washington two weeks back to discuss further
collaboration.

But now lawmakers from both the Senate
and the House
of Representatives - led by Patrick Leahy and Jim McGovern - have called upon the Trump administration to take
stronger action to support activists and prevent investment in abusive
industries. They demand that US assistance to Honduras be withheld if a
stricter inspection of their human rights record proves that the country is not
complying with aid conditions.

The letters are significant for four principle reasons.

Firstly, simultaneous bicameral letters regarding foreign affairs is
extremely rare. With legislators in both chambers spelling out a clear agenda
on Honduras just weeks after Tillerson’s confirmation, he will clearly face
close and coordinated scrutiny when it comes to the role of the US and human
rights in Latin America, the deadliest continent for environmental activism.

Secondly, the fact that 78 US politicians took the time to speak out
about this at a time when – let’s be honest – there’s quite a lot going on in
Washington, sends an especially strong message of solidarity with those activists
on the front line. The subtext to Hondurans is reassuring: we will not forget
about you just because things got a bit crazy over here.

Thirdly, they get it. The letters don’t just express concern at the
murders, but call for tackling the root causes documented in our report:
widespread corruption allowing business and political elites to impose mining, hydropower
and other industries on rural communities, whilst impunity means dissent can be
silenced violently without consequence.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, legislators have used the
letters to highlight the breadth of
US interventions which impact Honduran human rights, and the safety of those
who defend them.

The focus is on US aid, where legislators question how the State
Department recently certified Honduras – the most dangerous place on Earth to
stand up for land and environmental rights – as having complied with conditions
demanding that non-governmental groups ‘operate without interference’. The letters call for the establishment of
effective criteria to measure compliance, reiterating that aid should be
withheld if that can’t be verified. They also highlight how complex it is to understand
how US assistance is spent, calling for greater transparency.

The letters go further still. Recognising that abusive projects will
cease to exist without investment, they call for the State Department to work
with the Treasury to oppose financing by International Financial Institutions,
such as the World Bank, in industries associated with human rights violations.

They demand pressure on the Honduran
government to guarantee indigenous rights. They ask that the US be more vocal
in its support of local activists.

But why should we expect the new administration to act? Well, perhaps the most obvious reason for
President Donald Trump is that this is intimately linked to one of his
priorities: migration.

Thousands of Hondurans are fleeing to the US because of conditions
back home, in which the corruption which we documented ensures that the
country’s resources remain in the hands of a few elites. It is precisely those
community leaders combating this corruption and proposing more universally
beneficial development projects who are being murdered. If Trump really wants
to lower immigration, he needs to deal with its root causes; and that means
acting on these letters.

The call from Congress is timely: a year on from the murder of
prizewinning environmentalist Berta Cáceres, and at a time when conditions for
human rights defence in Honduras are worsening.
The government has failed to counter an orchestrated
online campaign against Global Witness and other NGOs, whilst hydropower
company DESA recently filed
a civil case against local defender Suyapa Martinez for defamation.

But current levels of scrutiny are unprecedented. These letters come
on the back of reintroduced legislation
calling for the immediate suspension of US security aid to Honduras. Together
they remind the Honduran government that it will have to do an awful lot better
and protect defenders if it wants to count upon continued US support.

Ben Leather is a Campaigner
for the protection of land and environmental defenders at Global Witness. Follow
him on Twitter at @BenLeather1